TRENTON — Prosecutors today offered a plea deal to a man they say helped to steal a car used in a deadly January 2012 drive-by shooting that shut down Route 29 for 16 hours while police investigated.

If he accepts the deal, Louis Alvarado, 23, could spend five years in prison on a charge of receiving stolen property.

The sentence could be lowered if he agrees to cooperate in the case against the four men who were in the car and are alleged to have shot and killed 23-year-old Daquan Dowling, Assistant Prosecutor Jim Scott said.

“The state believes Mr. Alvarado has very important information,” Scott said. “We would be willing to accept counter offers as well.”

Alvarado, of Hamilton, was not in the stolen car when Andre Romero, 21, Anthony Marks, 24, and William Mitchell, 24, all of Trenton, and Jamar Square, 19, of Lawrence are alleged to have pulled up alongside a car driven by Dowling on the northbound side of Route 29 at Cass Street at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 30, 2012.

Romero, who was driving, and Mitchell, who was in the passenger seat, allegedly shot into the car, prosecutors have said.

Dowling, who was driving his friend’s car and was not believed to be the intended target, was killed nearly instantly when a bullet struck him in the head, prosecutors said. The man in his passenger seat, Morris Satchel, tried to regain control of the vehicle while at the same time keeping his head down to avoid the gunfire. The car eventually hit a bridge near Memorial Drive, police said.

Route 29 remained closed through the night and into the next day, as police investigated the scene, and major traffic delays affected commuters coming into the city.

Alvarado’s case was severed from the cases of the others, so if he rejects the plea offer, his trial would not be affected by the other trials, Scott said. Prosecutors have video surveillance as well as fingerprint and DNA evidence that links Alvarado to the car, Scott said.